Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 5/8/2007

Question
im happy to ask a question to you.what is meant by milky way  galaxy?is there any other galaxies

Answer
Hi Kunu..
1 - The milky way is a collection of roughly 100,000,000,000 stars average size that of the sun.
But there are some stars that are so large that orbit of mars will reside in them. example is betelguese, the red giant seen as one of the 4 stars of the "mriga nakshatra" (hindu asterism) or Orion constellation.
Some stars are on the other hand about 100 to 200 times the size of jupiter and are called red dwarfs.

Our milky way has two satellite galaxies (irregular shaped)that are visible in the southern hemisphere, and are called the magellanic clouds. Supernova 1987a occured there.

Our immediate neighbour is the Andromeda galaxy. It also has two satellite galaxies in orbit around it.

In a few billion years, the milky way and this andromeda galaxy will collide and form an irregular galaxy that will soon settle into a giant elliptical form.

Both galaxies are speeding towards the Virgo cluster of galaxies at a great speed.

They both are part of the "local" group consisting of 10s of galaxies.

Jayen